I loved this recent article on Wired.com "Top 10 Bad Messages From Good Movies". Geek Dad points out some of the underlying questionable messages in popular films. For example, he points out that The Little Mermaid teaches that "It's OK to completely change your physical appearance and way of life for the person you love." It's both fun and fascinating, not to mention important, to really consider what messages movies send to kids.

I was thinking about this very thing when I saw New Moon. Kids are really into the Twilight saga, and lots of them are going to be seeing the movie. What messages does it send to kids? -- Having boys sneak into your room at night is exciting and romantic; if a guy loves you, he says things like, "I will never hurt you" and "You're everything to me" all the time; and breaking up with your boyfriend can send you into a deep depression for months at a time. Anyone remember the book "Madame Bovary"? Young girls could get a pretty warped sense of what love is like from watching these movies.

Yeah, it's just entertainment, but it's up to us to make sure our kids develop good common sense through real world experiences and discussions with us so that all of these messages from the media they are exposed to don't get out of context. For this reason and many more, it's just a matter of fact that monitoring, utilizing, and limiting kids' media exposure is a major component of parenting in this day and age.

Only a couple of days away from our awesome annual 17-hour road trip with three young kiddos. This year, we are going to have a Roald Dahl adventure. On the way there, we will read Fantastic Mr. Fox, since we'll be taking the kids to see the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie on Thanksgiving day. Also on the way there, we are going to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and then we will watch both versions of the film and eat chocolate bars while we compare and contrast the book with both versions of the movie (chocolate is always a great thing to eat in the car, right?).

On they way home, we'll read James and the Giant Peach. Then, we can contrast all three of the books with each other. Maybe I'll even read a bio of Dahl and have them write their own story with similar characteristics. Oh, and they can illustrate it too (thank goodness for Dramamine). I could drag this Dahl stuff out for a long time.

Hmm... I wonder what we'll do for the at least 10 hours we'll still have to go after we do all of that. Since my almost 2-year-old is suddenly madly in love with "Tinker Bells," I bet we'll throw a Tinker Bell marathon somewhere in there. All of our TV watching rules are out the window on road trips, of course. I'll pretty much do anything to keep them happy -- that means road games, doodle boards, books, music, and a lot of snacks and movies.

Shrek the Halls, which aired a couple of years ago, must have been a success, because a new special based on a popular movie franchise will air tonight. Merry Madagascar features our favorite Madagascar friends -- Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and those famous Penguins of Madagascar -- in a story about how they save Christmas, of course.

The festive film is rated TV-PG, though, which means that the "program contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children." So, parents may want to preview the film first if there are any concerns about the content or if young children will be watching. The 30 minute movie will air tonight, November 17, on NBC at 8/7c and again on Saturday, November 28. The movie will also be available on DVD.

(Photo © NBC Universal, Inc.)

Everyone knows that Thanksgiving celebrations include a feast, and for many, Thanksgiving also brings memories of football games or a family day at the movies. Of course, there's also the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is viewed on TV all over the country by those of us who can't be there to watch it live, and Thanksgiving Day is also the perfect time to break out a favorite Christmas special. With all of that L-tryptophan we put in our bodies, it's no surprise that TV is a popular pass time on turkey day.

I always mean to turn the parade on in the morning on Thanksgiving, but I'm usually too busy preparing for the day and forget about it. Some of our family members are into football, but others, not so much. We've gone to movies on Thanksgiving before, but not every year. So, we don't really have any Turkey Day TV or movie traditions, even though we do celebrate the holiday with the usual activities -- eating and sitting around. This year, we probably will go out to see a movie, but maybe we'll also start a new tradition and incorporate some of family fitness guru Catherine Holecko's ideas for fun and active Thanksgiving activities.